“It feels great,” said Baxter, who scored five points. “I’m glad to move on in the playoffs. That’s all I care about.”

Noah Shy (21 points), Josh Dennis (12) and Abdul-Rahim (11) — the team’s top three scorers this year — carried the offense throughout the game, but the Spartans never led by more than four.

Joe Leighton (26 points) and Andrew DeSantis (25) propelled Garden City to an 18-9 lead. After Dennis’ three-point play gave the Spartans a 45-41 lead at the end of the third, Leighton started the fourth with a three-pointer. He followed with a jumper and assisted DeSantis’ layup with 6:10 left to take a 48-47 lead.

Jordan James’ two foul shots 55 seconds later put Valley Stream North ahead, 49-48. Shy, who had sat for nearly seven minutes with four fouls, returned and promptly sank a left-corner three with 3:37 left to expand the advantage to four.

“We had 10 seconds on the shot clock,” Shy said. “In my mind I was just shooting it.”

Leighton answered with another three, off a feed from Kevin McNiff, and his pump fake coaxed Dennis into the air, setting up a clean look from deep that would have given Garden City a two-point lead with 25.4 remaining. The shot rimmed out.

After Shy split two free throws with 16.9 seconds left, DeSantis dribbled down court in a hurry for a game-tying layup eight seconds later.

Achatz had one timeout remaining, but he chose to let Abdul-Rahim create.